Li Ke could tell that Qiu Feng was anxious, so she told the two of them to go first, and she would catch up with them on her motorcycle later.
The third base of the Qiushan base is currently under construction. Qiu Shisan led a group of people to start construction inside the second ring road in early spring.
Currently, everyone else is concentrated at Song Xian's seventh ring road base and Qiu Feng's eighth ring road base.
Li Ke usually lives in a private residence inside the Sixth Ring Road. Jian Ye and his family haven't moved in yet, and her place is still very quiet.
The military dependents' area and private residences within the First Ring Road are also under construction. Song Xian will select a liaison office in one of these locations to facilitate communication.
On the way to the First Ring Road Conference Reception Center, Li Ke saw many plants with spots and some with holes caused by rainwater erosion. Although there were many wounds, they did not seem to affect their vitality.
Amazing mutated plants have made their debut ahead of schedule, but human change seems to be progressing very slowly. The corrosive damage from rainwater still has a significant impact on the human body, and so far, no one has been seen recklessly venturing into the rain.
Of course, it is possible that some people have become immune to the harm of acid rain, but to avoid attracting attention, they keep quiet about it. Li Ke is an example of this, and he became immune a long time ago.
On the eighth day, Li Ke and his two companions finally arrived at the conference reception area. There were quite a few people attending the conference, and Li Ke and his group were considered to have arrived relatively late. Even so, they still had to wait for three more days. On the fourth day, when everyone had arrived, they began to enter the conference venue in the afternoon.
The meeting was chaired by a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit and a short-haired woman in her thirties who looked very serious and capable. Both of them were dressed in neat Zhongshan suits, and their military ranks could not be seen unless they were in military uniforms.
Behind them were two soldiers in military uniforms and a man in a Zhongshan suit carrying a leather bag.
Li Ke, Song Xianqiu, and the other two were seated in the middle, near the front of the base. Li Ke saw Kong Zhiyan, Song Yuquan, and representatives from the Qiu and Jin families.
There were also representatives from four other bases. Li Ke didn't have much of an impression of them, so Song Xian quietly introduced them to her. These were all secondary bases and not from the head's family.
Behind Li Ke and his group, more than twenty representatives from the main bases and the remaining secondary bases were sitting, and some of them didn't even sit at the conference table, but just found a place on the periphery.
The Mo family's representative was Mo Cheng; neither Mo Shuzu nor Mo Bao'er appeared. Many new faces appeared at this meeting, including many secondary base representatives who were directly base leaders.
The meeting began, and the person with the briefcase took out a stack of documents and distributed them from the front. More than thirty copies were distributed, which was obviously not enough. The person told everyone to read them and then pass them around.
A copy of the information on missing persons can be kept at the base; it doesn't need to be passed down.
Li Ke took one copy, and Song Xian and Qiu Feng also took one copy. It was a redemption list, which indicated 15,000 women, 40,000 men, 3,000 children, 11,000 elderly people, 7,000 disabled people, and 9,000 sick people.
Behind each gender and age group lies the value of each individual. Women in their prime reproductive years, pregnant women, and men in their prime are the most valuable, and can be exchanged for food, weapons, and gold. Each person can be exchanged for 100 catties of rice or one kilogram of gold.
Children are reduced by half, the elderly by a quarter, the disabled and sick by a fifth, and only half of the most valuable women and men can be redeemed.
The signature reads: Creators Alliance.
"The number listed above is not the most accurate figure. The other side said that the number is decreasing, but if they wanted to, they could increase it rapidly. The other side has devastating weapons, and we are not entirely confident that we can take them down. For now, we can only negotiate with them to keep them in check."
The representative from the Qiu Clan base asked, "What kind of organization is this Creator Alliance? Why are they doing this? And their demands are outrageous; we simply can't meet them!"
The two men at the head of the table remained silent. Instead, the spokesperson standing beside them answered, "Right now, they just want land and food. This organization is made up of people and troops from small border countries that have lost their land. They have lost their land and homes, so they want to find a way to survive here, but their methods are rather despicable."
Representative Qiu looked troubled: "Nearly 10,000 people have gone missing from our base. If we go to ransom them according to their demands, the rest of us will not survive. Leaders, please think of a way."
The middle-aged man at the head of the table was silent for a moment before speaking: “People are dying every day now, and the hostages are in extremely dangerous situations. If you have people you want to ransom, you can make a list and hand them over. If you are truly powerless and decide to give up, then our people will continue to look for a rescue opportunity, but this will take more time. The longer it takes, the more people may die, and the greater the variables will become.”
"Is there really no way to deal with them? What's so scary about these people?"
"Everyone knows what kind of life we're living now. The conditions they're setting are clearly meant to make things difficult for us!"
"Please, you must think of another way. We are willing to ransom them, but we definitely can't meet these conditions. Could you try to negotiate with them again?"
"Are people dying every day? We're filling out a report now. Could you help us find out if the people we want to save are still alive and what their situation is?"
"I'm not going to put up with this humiliation anymore! Where are those bastards? We'll take our men and attack them. Even if we can't save our own people, we'll make sure they never live a peaceful life!"
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